The World Rose: http://richardbrittain.wordpress.com/2014/09/14/the-world-rose
An English classic, performed here by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with David Nolan on violin and Vernon Handley conducting.
(Picture: "The Cornfield", 1826, by John Constable)

Bernard Haitink conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in Strauss's An Alpine Symphony
Eine Alpensinfonie - Op. 64, is a tone poem by German composer Richard Strauss in 1915
"......Strauss's Alpine Symphony: a dawn to dusk Alpine ascent. From the spine-chilling opening evoking the hours before dawn and the richness of sunrise, through to the euphoria of the summit and the drama of the mountain tempest, this is Strauss at his most colourful" - Source Wales site (BBC)
Richard Strauss
An Alpine Symphony
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Bernard Haitink conductor
BBC PROMS 2012
London - Royal Albert Hall

During the summers of 1901 and 1902, Gustav Mahler set to music five poems by the German Romantic poet Friedrich Rückert. The third of these, "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen", portrays a world-weary artist who exists in our everyday world, but who actually lives his life in another, more ethereal plane reserved for great artists. Mahler, much maligned as composer during his lifetime, identified strongly with the poem, saying that it expressed his very self. In fact, he felt so strongly about this song that he reused much of the music in the famous Adagietto of his Fifth Symphony, which he composed during the summer of 1902.
The orchestral song begins with a mournful melody played by solo English horn. This melody is then restated and extended by the singer during the first stanza, which speaks of the artists isolation in a world that already thinks him dead. The tempo increases slightly for the second stanza, during which the artist reflects that he does not really care what the world thinks. The third stanza is remarkably peaceful as the artist describes the other world in which he resides: I live alone in my heaven, in my love, in my song. The gentle consonant-dissonant alternation of the violins and English horn in the coda seems to portray the artist staring beyond the horizon into his musical paradise.
Many consider "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen", as Mahlers greatest song, one of his most profound and moving works and was of immense personal significance for Mahler.
Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen
Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen,
Mit der ich sonst viele Zeit verdorben,
Sie hat so lange nichts von mir vernommen,
Sie mag wohl glauben, ich sei gestorben!
Es ist mir auch gar nichts daran gelegen,
Ob sie mich für gestorben hält,
Ich kann auch gar nichts sagen dagegen,
Denn wirklich bin ich gestorben der Welt.
Ich bin gestorben dem Weltgetümmel,
Und ruh' in einem stillen Gebiet!
Ich leb' allein in meinem Himmel,
In meinem Lieben, in meinem Lied!
Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866)
I am lost to the world
with which I used to waste so much time,
It has heard nothing from me for so long
that it may very well believe that I am dead!
It is of no consequence to me
Whether it thinks me dead;
I cannot deny it,
for I really am dead to the world.
I am dead to the world's tumult,
And I rest in a quiet realm!
I live alone in my heaven,
In my love and in my song!
Translation by Emily Ezust
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone)
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Karl Böhm cond.

- Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven (17 December 1770 -- 26 March 1827)
- Performers: Alban Berg Quartett
- Year of recording: 1981
String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135, written in 1826.
00:00 - I. Allegretto
06:22 - II. Vivace [Scherzo]
09:50 - III. Lento assai e cantante tranquillo
17:39 - IV. Grave ma non troppo tratto - Allegro ("Der schwer gefasste Entschluss")
Beethoven wrote the bulk of this, his final quartet, in a two-month burst of activity amid health problems and shortly after his nephew Karl attempted to commit suicide. But there's not a hint of self-pity or anguish in this compact, good-natured work. For Beethoven's valedictory composition, this quartet is surprisingly small-scaled, finding inspiration in the quartets of Beethoven's one-time teacher Haydn.
- The first movement, Allegretto, takes standard sonata form. Its principal theme in 2/4 hints at a march; this, the light textures, and Beethoven's reliance on very short phrases give the movement a playful nature that is emphasized by Beethoven's abrupt melodic and harmonic shifts and frequent interruptions in mid-phrase.
- Beethoven carries this unpredictability over to the second movement, Vivace, which is a scherzo and trio. Again, the overall format is traditional, but the movement abounds in rhythmic asymmetry disrupting the basic 3/4 meter, as well as suddenly modulating chromatic harmonies and melodies being gagged at inopportune moments. It's one of the most comic creations in Beethoven's chamber music.
- In deep contrast is the slow movement, Lento assai cantante e tranquillo. This is a D flat major theme with four variations; variety and development come more through harmonic coloring than motivic manipulation. The second variation slips into a dark C sharp minor, the only spot in this work where listeners obsessed with music as autobiography might find a reflection of Beethoven's troubled life. The third variation returns to the major key for a quiet treatment of the theme in canon between the first violin and cello, and the fourth toys with rhythmic details without disrupting the music's serenity.
- The finale initially seems to be a great, tragic utterance; Beethoven casts the introduction, Grave ma non troppo tratto, in F minor. At the head of the score Beethoven has written, in German, "The difficult decision," and next to the tempo indication are the words "Muss es sein?" (Must it be?). The cello and viola seem to be asking that question in the introduction, but soon the music breaks into an F major Allegro; here, Beethoven has written "Es muss sein!" (It must be!). Those three syllables form the rhythmic basis of the main theme, and seem to be inspired by an exchange between Beethoven and a friend regarding payment of money. The movement proceeds according to sonata structure, spirits remaining high right through the whimsical pizzicato passage that leads to the affirmative final bars.

"La Mer" L.109, (The Sea), is an orchestral composition by Claude Debussy. It was started in 1903 in France and completed in 1905 on the English Channel coast in Eastbourne. The premiere was given by the Lamoureux Orchestra under the direction of Camille Chevillard on 15 October 1905 in Paris. "La Mer" is a composition of huge suggestion and subtlety in its rich depiction of the ocean, which combines unusual orchestration with daring impressionistic harmonies. The work has proven very influential, and its use of sensuous tonal colours and its orchestration methods have influenced many later film scores. While the structure of the work places it outside of both absolute music and programme music as those terms were understood in the early 20th century, it obviously uses descriptive devices to suggest wind, waves and the ambience of the sea. But structuring a piece around a nature subject without any literary or human element to it - neither people, nor mythology, nor ships are suggested in the piece - also was highly unusual at the time.
Debussy called his work "three symphonic sketches," avoiding the loaded term symphony; yet the work is sometimes called a symphony; it consists of two powerful outer movements framing a lighter, faster piece which acts as a type of scherzo.
"La Mer" is divided inot three movements:
1. "De l'aube à midi sur la mer" (from dawn to midday on the sea);
2. "Jeux de vagues" (Play of the Waves);
3. "Dialogue du vent et de la mer" (Dialogue of the wind and the sea).
Conductor: Vladimir Ashkenazy & Cleveland Orchestra

Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30 (Thus Spoke Zarathustra or Thus Spake Zarathustra) is a tone poem by Richard Strauss, composed during 1896 and inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical treatise of the same name.
The piece is divided into nine sections played with only three definite pauses. Strauss named the sections after selected chapters of the Nietzsche's book:
1. "Einleitung" (Introduction): according to the interpretations, it should represent the Creation or the coming of the new age of the Overman and so, because of its evocative and declaimed aspect, it is led back to the Overman's motto.
2. "Von den Hinterweltlern" (Of the Hereaftergo'ers): here the brass quote the gregorian cento "Credo in unum Deum" or "I believe in one God" to represent faith at the top synthesis.
3. "Von der großen Sehnsucht" (Of the Great Longing): maybe it represents the age of "Sturm und Drang"; here there's a liturgical quotation from "Magnificat".
4. "Von den Freuden und Leidenschaften" (Of the Joys and Passions): the word to the strings, at the top tension; the trombones expose the theme of "Taedium Vitae".
5. "Das Grablied" (The Grave-Song): part where the strings prevail.
6. "Von der Wissenschaft" (Of Science): it is a fugue whose subject all only the twelve notes to represent scientism, positivism and maybe, to ridicule the rising dodecaphony.
7. "Der Genesende" (The Convalescent): it completes the tension of the previous movement, then, after a rough pause determined by a rip of the strings in the bass register, it starts again from the mystery to go to the atmosphere of the following movement.
8. "Das Tanzlied" (The Dance Song): the theme of "Taedium Vitae" is taken again trasfigured in a waltz.
9. "Nachtwandlerlied" (Song of the Night Wanderer): coda where the finale is suspended avoiding the cadence on the tonic.
Paintings by J.M.W. Turner and Caspar Friedrich.
Conductor: Georg Solti & Chicago Symphony Orchestra.